The Vienna State Opera was thrown into turmoil just days after its new season began when its general music director, Franz Welser-Möst, abruptly resigned on Friday and withdrew from all his scheduled performances there, citing “irreconcilable differences of opinion regarding the company’s artistic planning and profile.”

The bombshell announcement left one of the most prestigious posts in the opera world empty, sent the Vienna State Opera scrambling to find replacement conductors for Mr. Welser-Möst’s 34 planned performances this season and set off what promises to be an intense round of jockeying by maestros — and their managers — with dreams of a Vienna succession.

After a period of simmering hostilities, Mr. Welser-Möst handed in a letter of resignation on Friday to the Vienna State Opera’s artistic director, Dominique Meyer. While the details of their artistic differences remained murky, Mr. Welser-Möst, who declined to be interviewed, suggested in a statement that they involved casting, guest conductors and productions.

“The differences of opinion between Dominique Meyer and myself over the artistic direction of the Vienna State Opera have not merely occurred overnight,” Mr. Welser-Möst, whose contract was to run through August 2018, said in the statement. “We have attempted on many occasions to find a resolution, and of course he is entitled to his opinions regarding singers and conductors, and the whole artistic department. However, they will inevitably affect my position and work as general music director.”

Mr. Welser-Möst, an Austrian who has described his ascension to the podium at the Vienna State Opera as a dream come true, called his resignation from Vienna “a very painful decision.” He is expected to continue to serve as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, an ensemble whose international footprint has grown through increased international tours and residencies under his baton. Cleveland officials declined to discuss whether Mr. Welser-Möst’s departure from the Vienna post would have any impact on their touring prospects.

While walking away from Vienna, one of the greatest jobs in all of classical music, may appear perplexing, there is actually a long tradition of musicians’ either opting to leave the post or being forced out of it, dating back to Mahler and Richard Strauss and continuing through Herbert von Karajan and Lorin Maazel.

Now, with Mr. Welser-Möst’s departure, the Vienna State Opera will get a taste of some of the tumult that has afflicted other top opera houses lately. The Metropolitan Opera, which has been struggling financially, recently reached contract agreements forcing both workers and management to accept cuts. At La Scala in Milan, Alexander Pereira, the new general manager, found himself embroiled in a major political scandal, even before he started work there, over his decision to have the company buy several productions from the Salzburg Festival, which he led.

Now Mr. Meyer, the Vienna opera company’s artistic director, finds himself left in the lurch at the beginning of a new season. He said in a statement that Mr. Welser-Möst’s resignation was “of course a huge loss, and this step causes me personal pain, too, because I value Franz Welser-Möst very much as an artist and conductor.”

“My first worry and duty is to now find an adequate replacement as quickly as possible for the performances that he should have conducted at the Vienna State Opera,” he said, noting that Mr. Welser-Möst had been scheduled to conduct 34 performances, including new productions of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” and Strauss’s “Elektra.”

The Vienna Philharmonic, whose musicians are all members of the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, said that it had been taken completely by surprise by Mr. Welser-Möst’s resignation.

“We greatly regret this step,” the new chairman of the Philharmonic, Andreas Grossbauer, said in a statement. “For the Vienna State Opera, this decision comes at the worst possible time — the beginning of the season.”

He said that the orchestra pledged to Mr. Meyer its “full solidarity and support in this difficult situation in order that the scheduled performances can take place as planned.”

The sudden departure clouds the picture for Vienna and Mr. Meyer, who proclaimed himself “one of the happiest opera directors” while he was in New York earlier this year when the Vienna State Opera performed at the Vienna: City of Dreams festival at Carnegie Hall. He told a gathering of reporters that Vienna had sold more than 99 percent of its tickets.

Mr. Welser-Möst said in a video produced for that festival that he had never, in his wildest dreams, expected to get the Vienna post. “This house means, to this country, more than any other opera house in the world means to its country,” he said.

There have been clashes in the past between Mr. Welser-Möst and artistic administrators, notably in 2012, when he withdrew from a cycle of Mozart operas at the Salzburg Festival, leading to a public dispute with Mr. Pereira, who ran the festival, and with whom he had worked at the Zurich Opera.

Mr. Welser-Möst is still scheduled to conduct in Vienna later this month, but with the Cleveland Orchestra.

It remained to be seen whether his changing status in Vienna would have ramifications in Cleveland, where his contract also lasts until 2018.

In 2009, officials from the Lincoln Center Festival announced that the Cleveland Orchestra would appear at the festival every other year and that they hoped to mount some productions with the Vienna State Opera. The Cleveland Orchestra has appeared since then, but the idea of collaborations with Vienna did not pan out. Lincoln Center officials have said that they expect Cleveland to return in 2015, but on Friday they said that they were not prepared to discuss whether they still plan to host the orchestra then.

Michael Cooper reported from New York, and Rebecca Schmid from Berlin.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Vienna State Opera’s Music Director Resigns. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe